Myths About Israel: Israel Is an Apartheid State

Is Israel an apartheid state?

Dr. Reagan: Is it true that the Palestinians living within Israel are an oppressed and persecuted people? Is it true that Israel is an apartheid state? These are serious allegations that are made against Israel every day, even by the United Nations. Are they true, or are they myths?

Dr. Reagan: My colleague, Nathan Jones, and I on our television program Christ in Prophecy have been countering myths about the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. In the process, we focused on two issues: first, the claim that the Jewish people stole the land of Palestine from the Palestinians, and therefore, they have no rightful title to it; and second, the claim that the Jewish people have no historical or legal claim to Jerusalem as their capital. We concluded that both of these claims are total myths. And, we presented the case for the biblical, historical, and legal right of the Jewish people to ownership of the land of Israel and Jerusalem as its capital. In the process, we pointed out that there has never been a Palestinian state and that Jerusalem has never been the capital of any nation except Israel.

We went on in another episode of Christ in Prophecy to take a look at another myth that is being used to garner support for the Palestinians, especially among our nation’s college and university students. It is the claim that the Palestinian people are being persecuted and oppressed by the Israelis, and that Israel is in effect an apartheid state that keeps Jews and Arabs separated in all aspects of life.

Nathan Jones: I had to look up the word apartheid. Growing up I always heard the word used in the context of South Africa. For many decades South Africa kept the blacks and the whites totally separate and severely limited the rights of the blacks. South Africa was once know as an apartheid state, though no longer.

Dr. Reagan has traveled to Israel 45 times, and I’ve only been three, but we don’t remember a single time traveling throughout the land where we witnessed the Arabs, calling themselves Palestinians, forced to live separately from the Jewish inhabitants. There are some 1.4 million Palestinians out of the 7 million residents who live in Israel, and they have all the same rights as their Jewish neighbors. Arabs and Jews can ride on the same buses. They can both join the military, although the Arabs get the option not to, whereas the Jews must each serve for about three years.

I never saw an instance of apartheid. Our tour guide was Jewish and our bus driver was Arab. They may have bickered like brothers, but they possessed equal rights and freedoms. Israeli Jews and Arabs do businesses together. They live in neighborhoods together. They shop together. They vote together. Without a doubt, there is no apartheid in Israel.

Dr. Reagan: Not only have I traveled to Israel 45 times, I’ve also toured South Africa twice for extensive periods evangelizing and teaching. I witnessed apartheid first hand. I saw the absolute rigid separation of races there. There is nothing like that in Israel, and there never has been in Israel.

An Arab who lives in Israel is a citizen of the state, and they have all the rights as any Jew. In the state of Israel both Jews and Arabs possess the right to welfare as well as the right to work. You just name it. Ride a bus, whatever — equal treatment.

There is just no such thing as apartheid in Israel. In fact, the irony of the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state is that true apartheid exists in all of the Arab states, you know, the ones who are condemning Israel for apartheid. The Arab states will not even allow a Jew to live in their countries.

Nathan Jones: As a Jew, try and attempt to travel to an Arab state. No luck! You’re not even allowed to visit if you’re Jewish. And yet, the Arabs accuse Israel of apartheid. What nerve!

Dr. Reagan: After the 1956 Suez War, the Arab nations ejected all the Jews from their nations, and they did so overnight. I had a Jewish friend who lived in Cairo. He was from a very wealthy family. They lived in a mansion even. Then, one night, their whole family was told they must leave the country overnight. Their house, cars, bank accounts — everything — were to be left behind. They were told by the Egyptian government to get out of Egypt or die. They fled to Israel. During that time, there were over one million Jewish refugees cast out from all over the Middle East who fled to Israel. That tiny nation absorbed them all.

And yet, the irony is that the so-called refugees of the Six Day War, which is about a million Arabs, have never been absorbed back into the Arab states. They won’t absorb their own people. They won’t take their fellow Arabs in. Their own Arab people want to keep their refugees in filthy camps, label them Palestinians, and use them as a pawn to say to the world, “Look how badly the Palestinians are being treated by the Jews.”

Nathan Jones: When it comes to the appearance of apartheid, I believe there’s a cultural work ethic there, too. For instance, the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem is kept very clean and neat, as the Jewish people are very clean and neat people. The Arabs have embraced a more laid back culture, and so their neighborhoods tends to become more run down and dirty. Visitors will come to Israel and erroneously conclude that the Arabs are kept in squalor, but that’s just not true. It’s no different a situation than traveling around downtown Detroit versus uptown. There’s a difference in cultures between the two.

The world must accept the truth that there are freedoms for the people who call themselves Israelis. The so-called Palestinians living in Israel possess the same freedoms of religion, speech, and press. They can even run for office and serve in the government, called the Knesset. That would never happen in an apartheid state. Can you imagine some Arab country allowing a Jew to serve in their parliament? It’d never happen! And yet, the Arab countries still accuse Israel of apartheid.

Dr. Reagan: It’s just unbelievable what kind of propaganda exists on the world scene against the Jews. Even the Media knows the accusation of Israeli apartheid is a lie, but they use it anyway to fuel Antisemitism.

Nathan Jones: When it comes to the accusation of Israeli apartheid, it all boils down to the hatred of the Jewish people.

Dr. Reagan: That’s the truth. Satan hates the Jews with a passion because they are the chosen people of God. Through the Jews God gave the world the Word and the Messiah. Satan is determined to destroy every Jew on planet earth. That was the purpose of the Holocaust. The Prophet Zechariah prophesied that during the Great Tribulation Satan is going to try to annihilate the Jewish people once again, and he’ll actually succeed in killing two-thirds of the Jewish people. But, praise God, He’s going to preserve a remnant until the end who will accept Jesus as their Messiah.

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Lamb & Lion Ministries was established for the purpose of proclaiming the soon return of Jesus. We do not believe it is possible to know the date when Jesus will return. But we do believe it is possible to know the season of the Lord's return, and it is our conviction that we are living in that season...